What is Neuroaesthetics? : A New Paradigm in Psychiatry

Jung-Woo Son; Seungbok Lee; Woo-Hyun Jung; Sang Hyun Jee; Seong Hoon Jung

doi:10.4306/jknpa.2013.52.1.3

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Son, Lee, Jung, Jee, and Jung: What is Neuroaesthetics? : A New Paradigm in Psychiatry

Review Article

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 2013; 52(1): 3-16.

Published online: 31 January 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2013.52.1.3

What is Neuroaesthetics? : A New Paradigm in Psychiatry

Jung-Woo Son, MD, PhD¹, Seungbok Lee, PhD², Woo-Hyun Jung, PhD², Sang Hyun Jee, PhD³, Seong Hoon Jung, MD, PhD⁴

¹Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea.

²Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea.

³Department of Visual Communication Design, Hansung University, Seoul, Korea.

⁴Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Eulji University, Daejeon, Korea.

Address for correspondence: Jung-Woo Son, MD, PhD. Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, 776 1sunhwan-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju 361-711, Korea. Tel +82-43-269-6187, Fax +82-43-267-7951, mammosss@hanmail.net

Received 5 September 2012 Revised 2 December 2012 Accepted 31 December 2012

Abstract

Neuroaesthetics is an area of research on the essence of aesthetic experience according to the neurobiological perspective. The purpose of this article is to introduce both the important results from some studies based on neuroaesthetics and some neuroaesthetic reports in specific psychiatric disease. Aesthetic experience is thought to be a series of cognitive and affective processes for pursuing aesthetic judgment and aesthetic emotion. According to the present neuroaesthetic studies, the important domains are reward system, embodiment, aesthetic perspective in contrast with practical perspective, sublime, and so on. The neuroaesthetic approach to specific psychiatric disease is just beginning; however, case studies on the sudden appearance of artistic talents in neuropsychiatric patients have been frequently reported. We expect that neuroaesthetics is likely to continue to contribute new knowledge regarding the ultimate causes of various psychiatric diseases and the creativity of many psychiatric patients.

Keywords: Beauty, Brain, Neuroaesthetics, Psychiatry

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

The Intention - Sensation, Knowledge, Emotion framwork acts as a schema for experiencing art.

Fig. 2

The model of aesthetic experience by Leder et al.17)

Fig. 3

The results of Kawabata and Zeki.22) Statistical parametric maps rendered onto a standard brain showing judgment-specific activity in comparisons of beautiful vs. ugly (A), beautiful vs. neutral (B), ugly vs. beautiful (C), and ugly vs. neutral (D) (corrected, p<0.05). A: The activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex only (Talairach coordinates -2, 36, -22). B: The activities in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (-2, 50, -20), anterior cingulate gyrus (-4, 48, 14), and left parietal cortex (-54, -68, 26). C: Somato-motor cortex bilaterally (-4, -26, 60; right 28, -10, 56). D: No activity at corrected significant level.

Fig. 4

Lucio Fontana. Concetto Spaziale <Atteza> ('Waiting'). 1960. Canvas, Tate Gallery, London, UK.

Fig. 5

A: Nicolas Poussin. <The Holy Family on Steps>. 1648. Oil on canvas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA. B: Vincent van Gogh. <Starry Night>. 1889. Oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA. C: The results of Cupchik et al.30) Left superior parietal lobule (-34, -40, 57) was activated relatively more in 'aesthetic-soft' condition. The graph depicts the amplitude of the response in the left superior parietal lobule corresponding to the four experimental (pragmatic-hard, pragmatic-soft, aesthetic-hard, and aesthetic-soft) conditions.

Fig. 6

Altered functional connectivity between the prefrontal lobe (PFL), inferior parietal lobe (IPL), left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) and cerebellum (Cer) is considered to be at the basis of the autistic pathology.

Fig. 7

'Unravelling Bolero'.53) The patient painted this picture in 1994, 6 years before primary progressive aphasia symptoms began.

Notes

The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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